Highland League football: Debut goals for Rothes and Forres Mechanics, Buckie Thistle crash to Banks o’Dee penalty and Highland League Cup gets under way
A player swap deal during the week led to debut goals for two Moray clubs in the Highland League.
Rothes took in four players and passed another two on to Forres Mechanics ahead of the Saturday league programme, and there was some fairly instant impact.
Jordan Alonge and Charlie MacDonald made the switch from Rothes to Forres, with Thomas Brady and Taylor Thain moving in the opposite direction.
Forres hosted Fraserburgh on Saturday and Alonge fired in a goal in his first game inside 15 minutes, with Kyle Macleod quickly adding a second.
Broch staged a second half comeback as Kieran Simpson and Scott Barbour rescued a point in a 2-2 draw.
Meanwhile Brady netted on his Rothes debut at Deveronvale with a goal just after the hour, before Jack Mitchell levelled as the game finished 1-1.
Champions Buckie Thistle are finding life tough to defend their title, as on-form Banks o’ Dee striker Liam Duell scored a second half penalty to consign Jags to a 1-0 home defeat.
Leaders Brechin City scraped a 1-0 win at home to Wick Academy through Scott Logan’s first half goal, with Dayle Robertson missing a penalty.
Lossiemouth’s caretaker boss Gavin Price tasted his first defeat in charge as nairn County ran in a 4-0 win at Grant Park thanks to Andrew Greig’s double and one each for Ben Barron and Scott Lisle (pen).
Paul Campbell’s late equaliser for Formartine United grabbed a point for the ten-man Pitmedden side against Inverurie Locos - Matthew Mclean was sent off on the hour and Cole Anderson put Locos ahead with 12 minutes to go.
In the Highland league cup preliminary round, holders Brora Rangers left it late to beat a Turriff United side they defeated 5-0 in the league earlier this season.
Max Ewan netted early on for the Cattachs and Tony Dingwall missed a penalty, before John Allan levelled for Turriff on the hour. George Robesten struck five minutes from time to give the Sutherland men victory.
Clach won 3-0 at Strathspey Thistle in the other prelim with ex-Jag Jack Davison netting against his old team and Connor Bunce scoring twice.
